Seeing one local talent after another hit it big on those dance television shows, Calgary choreographer Sarah Dolan learned something: Things were pretty good, dancer-wise, in the old home town.

“Calgary dancers are definitely putting Calgary on the map for dance within Canada,” she says, “and (also) within North America, which is super-exciting.”

Dancers such as So You Think You Can Dance Canada stars Allie Bertram and McKenzie Green and Michelle (Florence + the Machine) Dawley were out there making names for themselves and our city, and were only the tip of a promising dance iceberg, as far as Dolan was concerned.

In 2010, with her mentor, Susan Mensinger, Dolan formed 02 Dance, a new contemporary dance company, featuring a company of all-Albertan dancers.

The company will present Grounds: Moments Shared Within a Coffee Shop, their latest creation, this week in three performances at the Martha Cohen Theatre.

“Grounds follows four friends as they gather for coffee through different stages of their life,” Dolan says, “so there’s definitely highs and lows in their life, and it just kind of shows the value of friendship to get through whatever life throws at you.

“We actually have 18 Alberta-based dancers joining us this time for Grounds,” Dolan says, “but in the past we’ve had a cast of 26, all Alberta-based, and we’ve actually been fortunate enough to have guest artists that are really good friends of ours that have gone outside of Calgary and made careers for themselves in L.A. or across Canada, and they’ve come back and joined us, which has been awesome.”

That tradition of dancers who’ve left the nest returning home continues with Grounds, when Green and Dawley will be back to perform at the Martha Cohen Theatre.

And although it’s no small deal to launch a performing arts company of any kind these days, 02 has managed with a little help from its friends, in particular the Edge School, where Dolan teaches, which provided rehearsal space for the troupe to prepare Grounds.

Another interesting aspect of Grounds is the introduction of multimedia, including a video component, Dolan says.

“The whole universe is becoming accessible via the Internet,” Dolan says, “and video is so huge right now, we have about five videos you will see incorporated throughout the performance.

“We use them as memories for the performers,” she adds, “but they’re really great — for the cast members to learn, when you’re doing vid work, where you need to look, where you’re getting shot from-all those kinds of things, how it gets edited together.”Spotlight

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.